OCT.42 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
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P. O. Box 899, New York. It la cl03e attention to 
these details which makes success possible In the 
matter of coloring, for one grain too much or too 
little will spoil the effect. 
In gathering ferns, do not select the largest, 
the smaller ones are much better. Press them 
between layers of blotting paper for from six to 
eight days, when they will be ready for use. 
In that same Ashing hamlet, old Hans Eckhart, 
sitting by a Are that leaped and roared up the 
wide chimney, in deOance of wind and rain, took 
his stumpy black pipe from his mouth, and 
looked about him, with a sort, of dull surprise on 
his broad, brown face, 
“ Ble.-8 me I Hagar, do you hear it storm ?” 
“ Yes. father.” 
Sbe raised her head from the low window ledge 
where It had been resting, and the Ore-light 
struck full upon her. 
Hagar Eckhart ft as scarcely seventeen. It was 
a 3traege, beautiful face that the girl had. As 
she crouched there in the fierce firelight, with 
her head thrown back, and her small brown 
bands wreathed listlessly above It, you would 
have said It. was a face for which another Mark 
Antony might, fling a world away. 
“ If any ship goes to sailing up the Channel to¬ 
night, I pity ’um,” 8 Id old Hans. “ I’ve lived on 
this coast, man and boy, for fifty years, but I 
never beard It. blow harder than this afore.” 
“ If you’re a mind to bear a hand ’’—began Ste¬ 
phen doggedly. 
Hagar leaned forward and grasped his arm. 
“ Wnere are the men?” 
Stephen placed his elbows on the window- 
ledge and looked indifferently In at the fire. 
THE ST ROLLING PLAYERS 
Running away from mother. 
Bareheaded up the street. 
Kicking- the dust into yellow smoka 
With little roguish feet. 
Tossing it over his clean white dress, 
Into his stocking heels, 
Choking the little wooden horse 
That trundles along on wheels; 
Dreamiug away with wide blue eyes. 
And speculating why 
God won't give him the golden ball 
That drops in the quivering sky. 
What'a the use of that pretty pink oloud. 
Bailing away so high. 
If you can’t have a ride in it, 
And its just no use to try 1 
If that woman grew with glasses on; 
If this houBe is papa s: 
Why that nioe red cow won’t talk to him, 
Looking across the bare. 
Into the neighbors' gates and doors! 
Under the cherry trees I 
Into mischief and out again, 
Whenever he may please; 
Wandering at last to the old church steps, 
Little horse and all; 
Climbing up laboriously— 
Too bad if he Bhould fall 1 
Pushing in, with dimpled hands, 
The great door stroDg and tall, 
Letting the sweet warm summer light 
Slide down the shadowed wall; 
Standing there in the solemn hush 
Of chancel, nave and dome; 
Thinking it is prettier 
Than the sitting-room at’home; 
Standing still In the broken lights 
That shimmer through the place, 
Mellowing down through painted glass 
Like rainbows on his face. 
Not a bit afraid-ab, no, indeed I 
Of the shadows vast and dim; 
Quite at home! and sure It was made 
All on purpose for him ! 
“ Washed up out here. We’ve jest found ’em.” 
“Dead?” cried Hans, aghast. 
“Dead as herrlo’s,” said Steve, laconically. 
The old fisherman came hurrying to the door, 
his tarpaulin crushed down over his brow, and 
with lantern In hand. 
“ A bad bouse—a bad race 1” ho muttered, un¬ 
der hts teeth. 
“ The squire ’ll take It kind of us to bring the 
bodies away,” shouted Stephen. “ Good heavens, 
how It blows I” 
Autumn leaves If too dry when you are ready 
to wax and varnish them, can be softened by soak¬ 
ing them an hour In water, then covering them 
with a thin coating of wax in the following way : 
Take a small flat-iron and warm It on the stove; 
run the iron over a piece of wa.x and then over 
the leaf until well covered ; let this become dry, 
and elve the lear a thin coating of white copal 
varnish with a brush, and It will then be ready 
for use. 
Fig. 6. 
Hagar’s dark, passionate eyes turned slowly 
from the cheerful coals back towards tba nlgbt 
beyond the window. She shuddered; how black 
and thick It was! She could see nothing beyond 
the pane hut the red beacon-fire of tbe light¬ 
house, and a few lamps in the low fishing village. 
Nothing? Yes; larther away towards the town, 
among clumps of dwarfed cedars and stunted 
pines, rose up the square, gray walls of Earns- 
cllffe, and its broad casements were glaring 
Fig. 4. 
The flowers used for mixing with dried grasses 
and ferns are Acroeltntura album and roseum, fig. 
1, Ammoblum alatum, fig. 2 . Immortelles (Gna- 
phallum), fig. 3. Hellchrysum composltum, fig. 
4. Rhodanthe maculate, fig. 8. Xeranthemum 
and Statlce Incana, fig. 6. S. hybrldn, fig. T. 
In arranging domestic grasses.it is advisable 
to use some of the imported grasses with them, 
such as Agrostls puled la, fig 8; Bromus brlztefor- 
mls fig. 9; Lagurns ovatus, fig 10. and Stlpa 
pennata or Feat her Gras?, fig. 11 . also some of 
the grasses gathered In the Southern States, 
such as Sea Oats fig. 12. Plume Grass and also 
the California Pampas Plumes. 
They went out through the darkness together; 
then tbe wind and rain came between, and si¬ 
lenced them. 
Hagar stood alone m the hut. 
The storm beat against the window. She 
pushed back her wet black hair, and strained her 
eyes to see the glimmer of the lights among the 
dwarfed pines. And why ? She had never oared 
forEtrnscUffe or Its grandeur before. It was a 
gay, proud house—that she knew, aud that only. 
The haugh'yold squire had passed her some¬ 
times on the beach In his glittering carriage. 
Sometimes, of summer mornings, she had seen a 
pale, high-bred girl, with a score of gay ladles 
and gallants In attendance, gallop by the door, 
and old Hans had told her It was the squire’s 
daughter, but that was all. There was a great 
gulf fixed between the fisherman’s daughter and 
Earnscttffe. 
Hark ! A faint murmur of voices rose upon the 
wind. One stormy sweep of white rain across 
the window, on over the marshes : then a sudden 
lull, and Hagar heard them co nlng. 
The old. old words come up to me, 
Spoken bo long ago, 
About the heavenly temple 
Where you and I would go— 
The beautiful waiting temple 
Which has no room for sin; 
Something about a Uttle child. 
And the way of entering in. f Alliance, 
ROW TO PREPARE DRIED GRASSES FOR 
ROOM DECORATION. 
JULIUS J. HEINRICH 
Fig. 9. 
through the darkness, all ablaze with light. 
Earnscllffe was the gayest and the haughtiest 
house for miles and miles around. 
Old Hans laid down hts pipe, looking the while 
at t he still young figure in the window, and won¬ 
dering what made her such an oddity. 
“Hagar,’’ he stld, “where's Stephen gone?” 
She did nor. turn her head. 
“ To the tavern, probably. I don’t know,” 
Old Haus oast a sober glance at the coals. Ste¬ 
phen was falling Into bad ways; and his only 
boy, too, 
The old-fashioned clock In the corner ticked 
loudly ; the cat purred around Hagar’s drooping 
hand; but still the royal face was pressed close 
against the dripping pane, the wide black eyes 
looked steadily out Into the night. 
“ Hark t” said Hans, suddenly. 
Some one was coming round the hut, whistling 
shrilly. 
“ That Is Steve now,” he said. 
Hagar started back with a cry as the hard, sun¬ 
burned face of Stephen Eckhart looked Into her 
own from the other side of the pane. He flung 
up the window with & low laugh. 
“ Did I frighten you, Pussle ?” 
“Stephen 1” 
“ Get the lantern, and come out here, will you, 
father?” 
“ What for ?” growled Hans. 
FIRST PAPER. 
Those readers of the Rural who may desire to 
decorate parlor or sitting-room mantels, or pic¬ 
ture-frames with dried grasses, ferns, flowers, 
autumn leaves, etc., will find the following sug¬ 
gestions very useful, as they are the result of 
many years of experience. 
The varieties of grasses round In the North¬ 
ern States are not as plentiful as those that can 
be gathered farther south; those collected here 
will be mostly composed of Red Top Grass (Agros¬ 
tls vulgaris), Creeping Bent Grass (Agrosils sto- 
lonlfera), Kentucky Blue Grans (Poa pratensis), 
Wood Meadow Grass (Poa nemoralls), Hungarian 
Grass (Panlcum Germantcum), Tall M.-adow 
Grass (Aveua elatlor). Yellow Oat Grass (Avena 
flaveaceus), Orchard Grass (Dactylls glomerate), 
and Timothy or Herd Grass (Phleum pratenae.) 
There are a few more, but those are the princi¬ 
pal ones. 
Fig. 6. 
Designs showing how to arrange grasses will 
be given In the Rural of Oct. 19. Messrs. August 
Rolker & Sons, N. Y., have kindly loaned the cuts 
used In this article. 
THE DISCARDED DAUGHTER, 
BY ELLEN HUNTER 
CHAPTER I. 
Over the scrags and the long, black, desolate 
beach the wind and ral i w»ni dr ring pitilessly. 
Fig. 10. 
She stood In the low doorway shading the light 
with her hand, Its red blaze showing full tn her 
eyes and slipping down her damp, wild hair. 
First, the hale, hearty face of old Hans; then 
Stephen. 
They came In, and she closed the door behind 
them, keeping her glance fixedly away from the 
burden they bore. 
It was tbe body of a man, with wet garments, 
ricU and fine, clinging to hl«o. They laid him 
down on the old fisherman’s bed. In the firelight. 
“ He’s got a breath of life In him, he has," said 
Haus. crossing bis arms behind him, and gazing 
at the still white face; “ but the other enap was 
a goner.” 
Stephen lifted up the handsome, drooping head. 
" There’s wlae la the closet; bring It, Hagar.” 
She obeyed, silent and pale. 
“ Now, chafe the hands, can't you ?” 
What handsome hands tney were 1 how much 
whiter than Her own ! There was a broad dia¬ 
mond slgnot-rlng od tue left one that was worth 
a prince’s ransoms Regular, high-bred with 
loose, gcld-brown curls falling over the white 
forehead, and an aristocratic clearness and fin¬ 
ish of outline. She dropped the hands with the 
first current of warmth that Ifcrllled them. 
“ It’s the same gentleman that was riding on 
the beach with Miss Earnscllffe yesterday,” 
Stephen. 
In gathering them, select such as are In full 
bloom but not ripe with seed; spread them on a 
paper In the shade to dry, and when thoroughly 
dry they will be ready Tor dyeing. It It Is not de¬ 
sirable to U96 them In their natural state. 
Those wishing to dye them in any bright color, 
will have to dip them five or six limes In boiling, 
hot water, spread them thinly on paper In the 
sun and let them get thoroughly dry; when dry, 
repeat the dipping tn hot water and place them 
In the sun again; thla must bo repeated until they 
become bleached, or of a yellowish-white color, 
when they are ready for the dye. Do not allow 
them to He out of doors over night; either take 
them In or cover them up. 
As It would take up too much space to give here 
full directions for coloring or dyeing and as 
some of the Ingredients are not easily obtained, 
I will give any reader of the Rural who may de¬ 
sire It fuU particulars If they will address me at 
Fig. 12 
Stephen shook himself like a great water 
dog. 
‘•That yacht that pushed off from Shipping 
Point a halt hour ago with some young feUows 
from Eirnscllffe aboard, has struck on the rocks 
and gone down.” 
“ Bless me 1" cried Hans. 
It had stormed all day,—it was storming stlU at 
nightfall, harder, fiercer than ever. 
Down lu that little fishing hamlet, nestling 
close to the lonely shore, a few lights were shin¬ 
ing In the cottage windows, and the red. lurid eye 
of the lighthouse glared ominously across the 
bar. It was a dreary night, and a dreary coast. 
